Apologies for my absence over the last few weeks – I have just changed job, so things have been a little more hectic than usual at work…

There hasn’t been a massive amount of news in the last couple of weeks (apart from a flurry in recent days that I’ll cover in my weekly round-up). However, there was some major casting news at the back end of the week though which deserves its own post – and it comes courtesy of the Menier Chocolate Factory

After a complete absence of any musical theatre news last week, these are a plethora of items to update you on this time around. For some reason, a number of shows have made casting announcements in the same week…

Since the show opened a while back, I had already read most the reviews in the newspapers. Obviously I made up my own mind about the show and as if often the case, there was plenty that I didn’t agree with… so I’ve decided to write this post as a direct comparison of my views compared to the critics.

Apologies for the fact that there was no Friday round-up last week – I was on holiday, and I decided it probably wasn’t worth interrupting my holiday for!

This week we’ve had 2 major new musicals opening in London and another new show finally announced for January 2009. We’ve also had some real and confirmed casting news, as well as some more reality TV rumours.